Student Contribution: Artist J. Nicole Hatfield

Contemporary American painter J. Nicole Hatfield is a Native Oklahoman who draws her inspiration from old historical photographs of her proud tribal women. By painting them she feels she not only acknowledges them as well as honors them by giving them a voice in our contemporary world. She frequently incorporates tribal language into her paintings to teach as well as keep Native languages alive.

A self-taught artist who refers to painting as ‘her voice’ uses her preferred medium of acrylic to translate her bold colors to canvas. She attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, which transcended her art into a range of different mediums.

Born and raised in the Southern Plains of Oklahoma, J. Nicole, respectfully of the Penetuka (honey eater) Band of Comanche’s, has a profound understanding of the unique paradox in which Native American people and artists find themselves. She is challenged with art’s demand to “make it new” while still honoring and appreciating the unchanging spirit in all things as well as traditional tribal values. By consolidating the past as well as transcending it, she is able to obtain the gasps of artistic air needed to escape drowning in the assimilating flood of Native fine art.